little enough attention, so long as they do not compromise the public peace. The Argentine, in fact, is still under a system of personal power; the Presidency of the Republic is the focus about which all the political life of the country gravitates. In default of a people as conscious of its rights as of its duties, and possessed of the virtues necessary to a course of perseverance in democratic practices, it is the Government that manages the elections; and it is difficult to say whether it does so because there is no public opinion, or whether there is no public opinion because the Governments usurp the functions of the electorate. From this point of view there has been no change in the political morale of the country; the only progress to be noted is that the parties

resort less often than they used to violence as a solution of their quarrels.

As for the administrative expenses, they are increasing with a rapidity only equalled by the growth of the fiscal resources of this fortunate country. Proposals for public works accumulate in the various Ministries, while waiting for the funds necessary for their execution; their total amounts to-day to the respectable figure of nearly £40,000,000.

To sum up: from our re-examination of the Argentine situation for 1909, we obtain an impression of great progress and of actual prosperity, an impression confirmed by the statistics of foreign trade, in which the entire activity of the country is reflected. For the year 1907 the total of imports and exports amounted to £116,000,000; for 1908 the total receipts and outgoings represented £133,000,000: with a commercial balance of nearly £24,000,000 in favour of exports.

Among the other manifestations of national progress we have still to take into account the development of the network of railroads, of which 13,660 miles are in actual working, representing a capital of £158,000,000, while 3259 miles are projected or in process of construction, representing a capital of more than £25,000,000. These new lines have been conceded by Congress either to companies already existing, or to new companies which are able to offer all desirable guarantees, so as to assure the prompt realisation of the schemes accepted. The Government, on its own part, has solicited and obtained from Congress the necessary sanction for the execution of a vast plan for the colonisation of the Southern Territories, which is based on the construction of numerous railroads. This continuous extension of the railway system has greatly favoured the valorisation of the new Territories, and has contributed powerfully to the movement of colonisation and emigration which is the indispensable condition of a wider future.

To-day, then, all is for the best in the best, or at least the richest, country in the world. But if science teaches us that Nature takes no leaps—natura non facit saltus—history also teaches us that nations in their progress must not progress too rapidly. For this reason the Argentine

Republic, in especial, has need to-day to consolidate her prosperity under a régime of foreign and domestic peace, of prudence and economy, and to avoid speculation and the abuse of credit, which have ended, before now, in inevitable reaction.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

Twenty years ago M. F. Latzina, Director of Statistics, published in French a very able work on the Geographie de la République Argentine, of which he had issued the first edition in Spanish, and I consented with pleasure to write an Introduction to a book whose object—an object which it fulfilled—was to familiarise European readers with a country whose rapid development is one of the most remarkable facts in the economic history of the nineteenth century.

“These results,” I wrote, after having quoted certain statistics of agriculture and commerce, “are assuredly very satisfactory. The Argentines have the right to be proud of them; few countries in the world could show a like example of progress!”

I have no less pleasure in associating myself to-day with this book, by Señor Albert B. Martinez (sometime Under-Secretary of State, and at present Director-General of the Statistical Department of the city of Buenos Ayres), and M. Maurice Lewandowski, Sub-Director of the Comptoir National d’Escompte of Paris. Their competence is incontestable, and their work requires no recommendation, since it has won the sanction of success, being now in its third French edition, and having been “crowned” by the French Academy. But the object which is aimed at by The Argentine in the Nineteenth Century is the same as that of the Geographie de la République Argentine, and the interest attaching to the book is the same.

“In the competition of the new nations, created by emigration from Europe,” I said in 1890, “this Republic will be enjoying a privileged situation, because of its particular advantages: the nature of its climate—a climate of the temperate zone; the vast extent of its territory; the quality of its soil; the facility with which railways can be built; its situation on the Atlantic coast, facing Europe, and relatively

near the Indian Ocean; the powerful tide of emigration setting in towards it, and the rapid peopling of the country, together with the wealth that results therefrom; the suitable character of its population, and the liberal spirit of its political institutions....

“The Argentine Republic, which occupies in the temperate zone of South America a position analogous to that held by the United States in the corresponding portion of North America, may well dream, if not of equal power, at least of a similar future.”

This dream is in process of realisation: of this the proof will be found in the chain of evidence which our authors put forward.

It is the present condition of affairs and, above all, the economic situation, which the authors of The Argentine in the Twentieth Century have set out to represent. They have not given us a panegyric—“nihil admirari,” say they—but a practical book: one written by men of business and affairs, founded upon direct observation, and hard-and-fast figures, where statistics have provided them.

The Argentine is a young nation, which hitherto has busied itself rather in work and production for the amelioration of its present condition, and in the preparation of its morrow by creating capital, than in giving itself to the historical study of its past. Nevertheless, history is the web from which the spirit of a nation is woven. It is useful to recall the principal historical periods, and particularly the origins of the nation, for the better understanding of the present period.

It was in 1508 that the Spaniard, Juan Diaz de Solis, discovered the estuary of the Plata, the Mar dulce; and in 1516 he returned, thinking, after the discovery of the South Sea, by Nuñez de Balboa in 1513, that this might be the strait, so sought by the navigators of the time, by which that sea might be reached, but on landing he was killed by the arrows of the Charrua Indians. He had discovered no strait, but a spot assuredly well suited for colonial settlement. The first attempts were abortive: that of Sebastian Cabot, who built the fort of the Sancti-Spiritu (1527), and

that of Diego Garcia. It was then that the discovery of some ornaments of silver, worn by the people of the country, gave the river its name; known first as the Rio de Solis, it was now called the Rio de la Plata. The Indians destroyed the fort and killed the colonists.

Eight years later a wealthy